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Residents and RPO chair press Washington council to keep four-lane STIP plan for 15th Street
Summary
Residents and Brian Alligood, chair of the Mid‑East RPO’s TCC, urged the Washington City Council to retain the four‑lane, channelized left‑turn design for STIP project U‑5860, warning that the locally proposed two‑lane Stantec design ‘will not work’ and could increase crash risk; the council heard traffic counts and said it is coordinating with NCDOT.
Brian Alligood, chair of the Mid‑East Rural Planning Organization’s Technical Coordinating Committee, told the Washington City Council on April 14 that the federally funded 15th Street improvement project (U‑5860) is already in the State Transportation Improvement Program and that altering the NCDOT‑backed four‑lane, channelized left‑turn design would force a resubmission and could remove the project from the STIP.
“All of the outside engineering firms and the State Traffic Management Engineer concluded that the [Stantec] design will not work,” Alligood said, urging council to treat U‑5860 as the opportunity to improve safety on a corridor where “three fatalities have occurred in the last two years.”
The presentation traced the project’s history: RPO and NCDOT scoring placed U‑5860 on the STIP after local input points and technical review; NCDOT initially proposed a four‑lane divided design in 2014 and later required municipalities to meet sidewalk‑installation conditions that have changed with updated local plans. Alligood said the Stantec two‑lane design quietly proposed by the City scored too low in NCDOT traffic modeling and would create delays and increased crash risk. He warned that “compressing the existing traffic volume on 15th Street into two lanes and turning that much volume head‑to‑head in a free‑flowing left turn lane is extremely dangerous and will result in more vehicular crashes and potential fatalities.”
Public comment before the presentation included more than a dozen residents who signed up to speak specifically about 15th Street. Council received a snapshot of recent traffic data from Stacy Drakeford, who said, “in one week there was over 47,000 cars driving on 15th Street with an average speed of 36mph,” a figure cited by speakers and Alligood to underscore safety concerns.
Mayor Donald Sadler asked who owns the roadway; Alligood replied that NCDOT is the owner. City Manager Jonathan Russell said city staff are “continuing to work with NCDOT and our citizens,” and noted that utility upgrades, including upsizing drainage pipes, are part of the project and would be at no cost to the City. Alligood cautioned that any locally proposed redesign would have to go back through NCDOT’s scoring and prioritization process, risking the project’s STIP funding.
The council agenda included multiple routine and unrelated items; Council did not vote on a local redesign at the April 14 meeting. The record shows ongoing coordination between the City, the RPO and NCDOT, and significant resident engagement on the corridor’s safety and design.
